[Simon]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Until this information is disclosed, it is entirely realistic to think that MS is mining data. No thanks, not for me...

Same here. I am surely not going to use a "free" MS product until the catch is made public. I'm guessing data mining too, but who knows. It's closed source so they could be doing all kinds of stuff without telling people.

rsync is the way to go. Free, open, and more than powerful enough to do all kinds of syncing. You don't need to be a big geek to get it to work for you. And reading a few man pages (or asking in a forum like this one) is a small price to pay for the versatility and security you get vs. the MS gadget.

BTW besson3c, that was a very nice intro you wrote on rsync. I'm sure it will help a lot of newcomers. Should be made a sticky.

[mduell]

rsync and FolderShare are both useful tools for different jobs/users. I use both weekly.

There's healthy paranoia and then there's just going overboard. I'm happy to assume that MS bought FolderShare to add mindshare to the Windows Live family of services and will eventually package a premium with their other products.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by mduell 

rsync and FolderShare are both useful tools for different jobs/users. I use both weekly.

There's healthy paranoia and then there's just going overboard. I'm happy to assume that MS bought FolderShare to add mindshare to the Windows Live family of services and will eventually package a premium with their other products.

There's also being naive (not to accuse you of being such). What evidence do you have that Microsoft isn't data mining? Unless you have some inside connections, you have done, and I'm personally not comfortable with that.

Nothing is free.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

What's in it for Microsoft? Either they are trying to get you to buy one of their products by giving this one free, or they are mining your data and selling it to advertisers. Either way, it is important to remember that nothing is free without some sort of catch. Until this information is disclosed, it is entirely realistic to think that MS is mining data. No thanks, not for me...

Doing that is a JAILABLE offense in Europe.

Microsoft has shown often enough that they don't care about finable offenses if they gain them a market, but data mining and selling the info to third parties without explicit consent of the "victim" is a privacy violation - a criminal offense. And EULA agreements have no meaning here, so by clicking "Agree", nobody's legally agreeing to anything.

[besson3c]

So GMail doesn't exist in Europe?

[analogika]

That's the exact opposite:

GMail doesn't harvest info and sell it. It performs automated scans and presents you advertising based on keywords and patterns.

GMail does not pass any information to third parties; it brings third-party content TO YOU.